


The night starts here

by sabrina



Category: Star Wars Legends: New Jedi Order Era - All Media Types
Genre: BFFs, Epic Cuteness, F/M, Fluff, Gen, Just hanging out on Yavin IV and worrying about each other, With a side of angst
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-05-09
Updated: 2016-05-09
Packaged: 2018-06-07 11:42:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,361
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6802279
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sabrina/pseuds/sabrina
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A quiet moment between two best friends just before the events of <i>Vector Prime</i>.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The night starts here

**Author's Note:**

> I've had a lot of Anakin Solo in my head recently and there just isn't enough fic of him and Tahiri Veila being best friends, so here is my addition to help fill this void.

Anakin found her around the backside of the temple leaning up against the stone walls, her eyes closed and a thrum of almost contentment as she allowed the warmth of the stones to warm her whole body. 

It wasn't an unusual place for Tahiri Veila to be found. It was one of the few places around the base of the temple where the stones could soak up the heat, without being shaded from the giant jungle trees while still allowing for privacy. He'd found her here many a time, and sat here with her practicing with different techniques, but today there wasn't going to be time for that because Anakin was headed out. 

Which maybe had something to do with the almost, but not quite content feeling that he could sense from her? But that was a little bit on the silly side. It wasn't as if he hadn't gone off with his family before, and he was going to come back. 

"Hey," he said, climbing up on a nearby stone, and dropping into a crouch, practicing some balancing as he looked at his best friend. 

She opened her eyes, and she looked at him. 

"Your parents are here."

"Yeah," Anakin nodded, with a small shrug. "You knew they were coming today." 

"Yeah you mentioned that," she tossed her head and leaned it back against the warmth closing her eyes again. 

"Are you mad at me?" Anakin realized, and he reached a hand up to push hair that was growing a little too long out of his eyes. 

"Why would I be mad at you?" 

"You are. You're mad at me. Cause I'm leaving?"

"I'm not mad." 

"Then what?" Anakin peered at her. He knew his best friend too well and there was something in her entire posture right now, and it felt a lot like she might be mad at him. He'd kind of had that directed at him a time or two before, and it was something he should know something about. "If you're not mad then why aren't you looking at me."

She opened her eyes with a roll, and she turned to stare at him. "I'm looking at you. I'm just _sunbathing_ , Anakin." 

He raised an eyebrow. "By yourself, when I'm getting ready to leave in like ten minutes." 

"Ten?" Her face faltered a little. 

"Yeah, I mean, maybe twenty depending on how long Dad and Uncle Luke get to talking. It might even be thirty, but pretty soon." 

For a moment there was nothing but the sound of the jungles around both of them. Anakin could still feel her through the Force, a presence that was constant when he was around her, or had been for a long time, and he was okay with that. And as excited as he was to head off with his Dad and his brother and Chewie, and to join up with his Mom and Jaina on Coruscant, for an actual family trip with all of them - something he couldn't remember the last time had happened - possibly Corellia and he'd been a lot younger that that point - he knew he'd miss that presence. 

"I won't be gone that long." 

"You'll be gone forever and ever," Tahiri countered. 

"No I won't," Anakin shook his head. "We're meeting Mom and Jaina on Coruscant, they're off on some diplomatic thing right now with Aunt Mara, and then we're going to make this outer rim run as a family, and then I'll be back. I've still got training to do." 

"But you're going to get your own master soon, Anakin. I know you will because you've grown a ton this past year, and then you're going to run off with them, and it'll be just you and whoever you end up with, learning things, and being sent on missions, and I'll be stuck here and I will hardly ever get to see you except on those brief times when you come back." Tahiri's words came out almost without a breath between them and she stepped forward and sat down in front of him, crossing her legs and tucking her bare feet underneath her knees. "That's what happens." 

"But that's not forever," Anakin looked over at her. "It's just until we become knights. What, you're the one who always says we'll always be best friends. Were you lying?" 

"No. Of course not. It's just," she fell strangely silent for Tahiri and when she finally spoke again there was a wistfulness. "I'm going to miss you."

"I'm going to miss you too," Anakin replied. "But you're probably going to have amazing adventures without me and make _me_ jealous."

"Now that you mention it?" Tahiri lifted her chin up and looked determined. "I absolutely am going to have amazing adventures. I'll show Valin and Sannah the caves." 

There was a curl of something not particularly pleasant at the idea of Tahiri showing Valin Horn and Sannah the caves that he had discovered with her. "Those are _our_ caves." 

"They're Jedi caves," Tahiri countered with a smirk. "If you don't want to be left out showing them to the younger generation, then you'd just better come back so you can show them with me." 

Anakin heard his name in the distance and he looked up and then back at Tahiri. "You'd best not show them without me."

"You'd best come back. You don't own me and you don't own the caves." 

"I'm going to come back," Anakin protested, mostly good natured despite the blatant dislike of what Tahiri was threatening to do. "Trust me."

"Oh yeah, that's always worked out well." 

"Hey, I got you away from that snake, and we got through the Jundland wastes and -"

"You're boasting," Tahiri raised her shoulders high and looked at him sternly. "A Jedi should be humble in the Force, never proud, and certainly never boast." 

"Yes, Master Tahiri." It was Anakin's turn to roll his eyes. 

"Anakin?" 

Tahiri and Anakin's heads both turned almost in sync to spy Jacen looking at both of them. 

"Yeah, sorry, I'm coming," Anakin told his brother, standing up and brushing his hands off on the Corellian style trousers he had put on to head out from the academy. 

"Hey, Tahiri," Jacen greeted the younger Jedi before turning to his brother. "Dad wants to get off planet - see if we can make it back to Coruscant before Mom and Jaina do." 

"Did he get word from them?" 

"Mom left a message on the subspace channels. And he thinks we can make it, but there are a few things that need to be done on the _Falcon_ before we go, so he wants extra time." 

"Yeah, all right," Anakin turned back to Tahiri who had also stood up. 

He was startled by the sudden motion of finding her arms wrapped around him in a quick hug. "I've got a bad feeling," she whispered as she pulled back. "Like it's going to be forever until I see you again." 

"Like from the Force?" Anakin pulled back and found Tahiri's gaze. He knew Jacen was standing there waiting for them, possibly even able to overhear it, but for a moment he really didn't care. 

"I don't know. It's just - like this sense of something not right. It's probably not anything. Just come back soon." 

"Yeah," and for once it was Anakin who reached forward to hug her tight, and when he pulled back he gave her his best lopsided grin. "Hey, it'll be fine. I'll see you in a few weeks, okay?"

"A few weeks? I guess I can probably handle not showing Valin and Sannah before then… but if it's a month…" Tahiri's voice trailed off with a grin. 

"Our caves," Anakin persisted. " _Ours_!" 

"What caves?" Jacen looked between the two of them. 

Tahiri burst into giggles. "He'll tell you, or he won't, cause they're _ours_." 

Anakin shook his head at his brother, "Later, come on Jacen. I'll see you Tahiri." 

He waved over his shoulder as he heard her throw after him with a warmth that he knew could only come from the Tahiri shaped presence in the Force: "May the Force be with you." 

"You too."

**Author's Note:**

> 'The night starts here' is from the Stars song by that title. 
> 
> You can find me blogging about Solo kids, and writing updates over [here](http://sabrinawritesthings.tumblr.com/).


End file.
